Prior to this role, Mr. Hundorfean served as CEO of MUSC Health Rehabilitation Hospital, a freestanding rehabilitation hospital in North Charleston, affiliated with Birmingham, Ala.-based Encompass Health.
He also previously served as CEO of University Hospitals Rehabilitation Hospital in Beachwood, Ohio, a joint venture between Cleveland-based University Hospitals and Louisville, Ky.-based Kindred Healthcare.
Mr. Hundorfean told Becker’s that all of his experience has prepared him for his current role at MUSC Health-Charleston Division, a regional division of MUSC Health. He discussed his new role, the biggest opportunities for the division, and his approach to strategic decision-making.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What drew you to this new role at MUSC Health-Charleston Division, and how do you see it aligning with your past experiences in rehabilitation and acute care leadership?
Rick Hundorfean: I’ve been in Charleston in the rehab role as CEO for a little over three years, and I did so much partnership work with MUSC Health in helping to do everything from driving new programs and services to integrating our physician networks and more closely aligning there. And overall, growing services and developing strategic plans to expand that hospital.
Through that work, I was able to get more in touch with and see all of the things that MUSC was doing across the state, here in Charleston. And I loved it. Everything around innovation and the new projects and services that were coming out. If you go on our LinkedIn page, MUSC is rolling something out literally almost daily, if not multiple times a day, whether it’s a new location we’re announcing or a new program or service we’re highlighting. And I thought, how exciting is that? To be a part of an organization that’s in a growth phase and doing all these innovative things.
The fact that I was already here in town and the opportunity became available — it seemed like a natural fit. I’m an industrial engineer by trade. So that role and that background can be beneficial in any type of industry, and specifically in the healthcare industry. It can lend itself in many positive ways, whether in rehab or on the academic medical center side, which is where I am now in this chief operating officer role. But you get in there and find out what’s working and celebrate it. You find out what’s not working, pull teams together to help address those problems, and get involved in all of the teams working to grow services across the state.
Q: What are the biggest opportunities for MUSC Health-Charleston Division to improve patient care and operational efficiency in the next year?
RH: The challenges and opportunities are changing. They evolve every year. A couple of years ago, for the Charleston market, specifically for MUSC, the main challenge may have been access to care. And we’ve addressed that by increasing our footprint across the state of South Carolina. We now have an MUSC facility in every county across the state, have acquired several new hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, and have significantly grown our ambulatory footprint.
So from an access standpoint, we’ve worked hard to address some of those challenges. There will always be ongoing opportunities related to changes with payer mix and payer contracts, which we address as those things arise.
For us in Charleston right now, it’s about how we keep up with demand from a growth perspective. We’re at capacity levels in the Charleston market and beyond. So how do we continue expanding our footprint, services and programs to keep up with that demand?
When COVID happened, we started to see a shift in people moving from northern markets and the Midwest down South. And Charleston has experienced that in terms of population shifts. So it’s not just about the infrastructure of the city, but also MUSC Health — how do we keep up with that growth?
Q: You’ve led hospitals in different markets — what lessons from your time at University Hospitals and Encompass Health will be most valuable in your new role?
RH: In all higher roles, there are always little bits and pieces of takeaways and things that you bring to your next role — even on the things that didn’t work so well. I see those as tools on your tool belt — pitfalls to avoid in the future.
And I would say, some that are most notable — I got great experience working at the Cleveland Clinic, understanding a bigger academic medical center, especially a tertiary care center like the downtown main campus of Cleveland Clinic. It’s very similar to the operations we have here at MUSC — our downtown campus — running everything from the ED to pediatric care to adult care to comprehensive cancer care. Seeing all those different dynamics and how the leadership team grew all of those portfolios, I was able to be directly involved in that through project management work.
Ultimately, I had the opportunity to oversee the Cleveland Clinic pain management division, which included 18 sites. So, not only was I managing the big core book of business — downtown patients coming in for procedures and outpatient care — but that also expanded into the region. That experience lent itself well to my next opportunity at University Hospitals, where I took on a different role. I oversaw neurology and neurosurgery and was also part of the task force that helped start up a spine and pain management institute during COVID. That role allowed me to manage a broader portfolio of locations, both inpatient and outpatient.
Before I left, I had oversight of 47 sites, which gave me great ambulatory experience, as well as management and oversight of surgical cases with our physicians. From there, I transitioned into the inpatient rehab side of care, where I ran operations at Kindred in Cleveland and later at University Hospitals Rehabilitation Hospital. Most recently, I led MUSC Rehabilitation Hospital. That CEO experience really solidified my leadership skills — running day-to-day operations, partnering with my team to oversee everything from food and nutrition services to environmental services. I worked with marketing to develop strategies for bringing patients into the hospital, facilities and grounds, all of that.
All of those experiences collectively prepared me well for the role I’m in now.
Q: As healthcare systems face financial and workforce pressures, how do you plan to approach strategic decision-making to balance growth, quality, and sustainability?
RH: I can already see the promising work that teams are doing systematically to address quality and satisfaction. I would say patient care is the No. 1 priority, followed very closely — if not running in parallel — by workforce engagement. Making sure our staff are happy and that this is a destination organization for people in the community to want to work at is critical.
Those factors, in turn, drive revenue and financial stability. We’re looking at multiple initiatives — from new site locations in the region to increase access to care, to expanding our footprint, to bringing care closer to home, which is one of MUSC’s core strategies.
We’ve also really doubled down on our commitment to innovation and are partnering with companies developing platforms that make care easier, improve patient outcomes, and drive process efficiencies for our workforce. I won’t go into specifics, but there are literally hundreds of projects in progress across the system that I’ve learned about in my short time here — all focused on those priorities.